Thursday, August 08, 2013
Saturday, August 03, 2013
Friday, August 02, 2013
Jim PepperFest update: American Indian Movement
We
are honored and very happy to announce a partnership with American Indian Movement (AIM) Portland Oregon Chapter. AIM
Portland volunteers will provide public safety and security services for the
Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival, August 7 – 10.
From
the official American Indian Movement website:
A Brief History of the American Indian Movement
by Laura Waterman
Wittstock and Elaine J. Salinas
In the 30 years of its formal history, the American Indian
Movement (AIM) has given witness to a great many changes. We say formal
history, because the movement existed for 500 years without a name. The leaders
and members of today's AIM never fail to remember all of those who have
traveled on before, having given their talent and their lives for the survival
of the people.
At the core of the movement is Indian leadership under the
direction of NeeGawNwayWeeDun, Clyde H. Bellecourt, and others. Making steady
progress, the movement has transformed policy making into programs and organizations that have served
Indian people in many communities. These policies have consistently been made
in consultation with spiritual leaders and elders.The success of these efforts
is indisputable, but perhaps even greater than the accomplishments is the
vision defining what AIM stands for.
Indian people were never intended to survive the settlement of Europeans in the Western
Hemisphere, our Turtle Island. With the strength of a spiritual base, AIM
has been able to clearly articulate the claims of Native Nations and has had
the will and intellect to put forth those claims.
The movement was founded to turn the attention of Indian people
toward a renewal of spirituality which would impart the strength of resolve
needed to reverse the ruinous policies of the United States, Canada, and other
colonialist governments of Central and South America. At the heart of AIM is
deep spirituality and a belief in the connectedness of all Indian people.
During
the past thirty years, The American Indian Movement has organized communities
and created opportunities for people across the Americas and Canada. AIM is
headquartered in Minneapolis with chapters in many other cities, rural areas
and Indian Nations.
AIM has repeatedly brought successful suit against the federal
government for the protection of the rights of Native Nations guaranteed in
treaties, sovereignty, the United States Constitution, and laws. The philosophy
of self-determination upon which the movement is built is deeply rooted in
traditional spirituality, culture, language and history. AIM develops
partnerships to address the common needs of the people. Its first mandate is to
ensure the fulfillment of treaties made with the United States. This is the
clear and unwavering vision of The American Indian Movement.
It has not been an easy path. Spiritual leaders and elders foresaw
the testing of AIM's strength and stamina. Doubters, infiltrators, those who wished
they were in the leadership, and those who didn't want to be but wanted to tear
down and take away have had their turns. No one, inside or outside the
movement, has so far been able to destroy the will and strength of AIM's
solidarity. Men and women, adults and children are continuously urged to stay
strong spiritually, and to always remember that the movement is greater than
the accomplishments or faults of its leaders.
Inherent in the spiritual heart of AIM is knowing that the work
goes on because the need goes on.
Indian people live on Mother Earth with the clear understanding
that no one will assure the coming generations except ourselves. No one from
the outside will do this for us. And no person among us can do it all for us,
either. Self-determination must be the goal of all work. Solidarity must be the
first and only defense of the members.
In November, 1972 AIM brought a caravan of Native Nation
representatives to Washington, DC, to the place where dealings with Indians
have taken place since 1849: the US Department of Interior. AIM put the
following claims directly before the President of the United States:
|
For
more information about the American Indian Movement:
~~~~~
Evening concert series tickets are on
sale now:
Reserved seats $ 25
Season Pass $ 95
Friday, July 26, 2013
Jim PepperFest 2013 new lineups and new prices
photo courtesy of the family of Jim Pepper
Wednesday, August 7
Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center
Theater
7:00 Keith Secola
Keith Secola
(Anishinaabe) is an icon and ambassador of Native American music. He is one of
the most influential artists in the field today. Rising from the grass roots of
North America, he is a songwriter of the People. Critics have dubbed him the
Native American versions of both Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
NDN Kars (Indian
cars), his most popular song, is considered the contemporary Native American
anthem, achieving legendary status and earning him a well deserved cult
following. It has been the number one requested song on tribal radio since 1992.
In 2011,
Keith joined the ranks of Jimi Hendrix, Hank Williams, Crystal Gale, Richie
Valens and Jim Pepper when he was inducted into the Native American Music Hall
of Fame (NAMA). His seven NAMA awards include Lifetime Achievement
(2011). Keith opens the 1st annual Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival
as a solo singer/songwriter and returns on Friday evening August 9 as the Keith
Secola band.
Meet Keith Secola: http://jimpepperfest.net/mediagallery.html
8:30 King/Moore (Nancy King and Glen Moore)
King/Moore: No
one has a longer history of musical collaboration and friendship with Jim
Pepper than Glen Moore. They performed as teenagers with the Young Oregonians.
Glen Moore went on to co-found the band Oregon, which continues to keep Jim's
music alive worldwide.
World-renowned jazz singer Nancy
King's connection to Jim Pepper began in the 1960s. Both Glen Moore and Nancy
King have earned Grammy nominations in their respective careers.
As King/Moore, Nancy King and Glen
Moore have recorded three albums together and performed across Europe and North
America. Nancy King was a nominated for a Best Jazz Singer Grammy on two
different cds with two different bands the same year.
New price: All seats are $ 25
New price: Season pass $ 95
Buy tickets now: http://jimpepperfest.net/buyticketsnow.html
Thursday, August 8
Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center
Theater
7:00 Swil Kanim
Swil Kanim (Lummi)
is a classically trained violinist, Native American storyteller and actor. He
is an activist whose life mission is to bring healing and hope through music,
fine arts and storytelling. As a young boy, he was separated from his parents
and spent the remainder of his childhood in a series of foster homes. One of
his teachers encouraged him to enroll in a music program, and the violin became
his instrument of choice. Through music, he found his path to healing his childhood
wounds and reconnecting to his Native American roots. He credits his fourth
grade teacher and access to band at school with saving his life, and he wants
to tell you the story….
Meet Swil Kanim: http://jimpepperfest.net/mediagallery.html
8:30 The Star Nayea Band
Star Nayea: When Star Nayea
was only two months old, she was taken from her Native American family because
of the 1950s-70s baby sweep perpetrated by the United States and Canada.
Despite the good intentions of the Lutheran Social Services of Detroit,
Michigan, she landed in an extremely abusive adoptive family that did not share
her heritage. After several years of pain and struggle, she escaped her
adoptive family and began to reach for her dreams of musical freedom.
While the experience and circumstances that brought Star Nayea to Detroit were unfortunate to say the least, the surrounding Motor City Rock and Roll scene and the raved-about MO-Town sound influenced and shaped her tastes as she grew into the young woman with the unique soulful style. Star began her musical career in her home town of Detroit, but it was not long before she was selling out shows in New York City, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
While the experience and circumstances that brought Star Nayea to Detroit were unfortunate to say the least, the surrounding Motor City Rock and Roll scene and the raved-about MO-Town sound influenced and shaped her tastes as she grew into the young woman with the unique soulful style. Star began her musical career in her home town of Detroit, but it was not long before she was selling out shows in New York City, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
Star Nayea has worked with many noteworthy Native
American artists such as Indigenous, Joanne Shenandoah, and Buffy St. Marie.
She overcame her negative experiences and became a Grammy-winning and
Nammy-winning mentor and inspiration to many young aspiring Native American
singers. She’s bringing some of them with her. Her students will perform earlier
on the Flying Eagle Main Stage at 3:00.
Meet Star Nayea: Mountain Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1qij-yhw94
New price: All seats are $ 25
New price: Season pass $ 95
Buy tickets now: http://jimpepperfest.net/buyticketsnow.html
Friday August 9
Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center
Theater
7:00 The Keith Secola Band
Keith Secola returns to the stage with
a band that features Parkrose High School graduate, bandleader and guitar
player Brian Harrison.
8:30 The Free Spirits Reunion, pt 1: Larry Coryell, Ra-Kalam Bob Moses, Chris
Hills, Columbus Chip Baker and Friends
This band is beyond legendary! Reuniting
more than forty years after they last performed as The Free Spirits to remember
and celebrate their friend and bandmate Jim Pepper.
The beginning of jazz-rock is
commonly dated in the late '60s with the emergence of Blood,
Sweat, & Tears, the Electric Flag, and Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, but in fact a few sporadic efforts were
made at reconciling the two forms before that. The
Free Spirits, a
New York group featuring the guitar, songwriting, and singing of Larry
Coryell,
may have been the first.
Augmenting the usual
guitar-bass-drums rock lineup with the tenor saxophone of Jim
Pepper,
the quintet's backgrounds were decidedly jazz. But their sound was considerably
closer to rock, investing the early psychedelic sounds of the day with
relatively adventurous, jazz-derived improvisation, horns (or one, anyway), and
elastic song structures. They weren't avant-garde by any means; on their LP,
their innovations were tailored to fit songs with vocals lasting between two
and three-and-a-half minutes. Their moderate use of jazz idioms within pop and
rock frameworks was innovative for its day and has always been unfairly
overlooked. --Richie Unterberger
Larry Coryell deserves a
special place in the history books. He brought what amounted to a nearly alien
sensibility to jazz electric guitar playing in the 1960s, a hard-edged, cutting
tone, phrasing and note-bending that owed as much to blues, rock and even
country as it did to earlier, smoother bop influences. Yet as a true eclectic,
armed with a brilliant technique, he is comfortable in almost every style, from
the most decibel-heavy distortion-laden electric work to the most delicate,
intricate lines on acoustic guitar.
Watch him demolish Ravel’s
Bolero with a 12-string guitar and meet Larry Coryell and The Free Spirits: http://jimpepperfest.net/mediagallery.html
New price: All seats are $ 25
New price: Season pass $ 95
Buy tickets now: http://jimpepperfest.net/buyticketsnow.html
August 10
Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center
Theater
7:00 John Trudell and Bad Dog
John Trudell is an acclaimed poet, national
recording artist, actor and activist whose international following reflects the
universal language of his words, work and message. Trudell (Santee Sioux) was a
spokesperson for the Indian of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz
Island from 1969 to
1971. He then worked with the American Indian Movement (AIM), serving as
Chairman of AIM from 1973 to 1979.
In 1982, Trudell began recording his poetry
to traditional Native music and in 1983 he released his debut album Tribal
Voice on his own Peace Company label. Trudell then teamed up with the late
legendary Kiowa guitarist Jesse Ed Davis. Together, they recorded three albums
during the 1980's. The first of these, AKA Graffiti Man, was released in 1986
and dubbed the best album of the year by Bob Dylan. AKA Graffiti Man served
early notice of Trudell's singular ability to express fundamental truths
through a unique mix of poetry, Native music, blues and rock.
Since that time,
Trudell has released seven more albums plus a digitally re-mastered collection
of his early Peace Company cassettes. His 2002 CD, Bone Days, was executive
produced by Academy Award winning actress Angelina Jolie.
His latest
double album, Madness & The Moremes, showcases more than five years of new
music and includes special Ghost Tracks of old favorite Trudell tunes made with
legendary Kiowa guitarist Jesse Ed Davis. This internet only release offers a
full range of classic Trudell poetry – there are lyrics
filled with penetrating insight and others with knock out humor, all put to
some of the best music Bad Dog has ever made together.
In addition to his music
career, Trudell has
played roles in a number of feature films, including a lead role in the Mirimax
movie Thunderheart and a major part in Sherman Alexie's Smoke Signals. He most
recently played Coyote in Hallmark's made for television movie, Dreamkeeper.
Meet John
Trudell and Bad Dog: http://jimpepperfest.net/mediagallery.html
8:30 The Free Spirits, pt 1: Larry Coryell, Ra-kalam Bob Moses, Chris
Hills, Columbus Chip Baker and Friends
The Free Spirits and Friends re-take the stage to close out the 1st
annual Jim PepperFest Native Arts Festival, Jim
PepperFest 2013: Rise of The Free Spirits.
New price: All seats are $ 25
New price: Season pass $ 95
Buy tickets now: http://jimpepperfest.net/buyticketsnow.html
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Jim PepperFest 2013 to feature National Museum of the American Indian exhibit IndiVisible: African - Native American Lives in the Americas
The National Museum of the American Indian’s traveling exhibit
IndiVisible: African - Native American Lives in the Americas will make its first Portland appearance at the 1st annual Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival,
August 7 – 10 and then will return to Portland through October – November for
an extended run at Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus, in the heart of
the City’s historically segregated African American neighborhoods.
Admission to the IndiVisible exhibit at Jim PepperFest
2013 will be free to the public, open 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Wednesday – Saturday
August 7 – 10, at Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center in NE Portland.
We will be requesting donations of two items of nonperishable
food for the Oregon Food Bank.
Jimi Hendrix, rock
legend
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will
know peace.”
—Jimi Hendrix
The rock-and-roll innovator
Jimi Hendrix often spoke proudly of his Cherokee grandmother. He was one of
many African Americans who cite family traditions in claiming Native ancestry. Photo: Courtesy Experience Music
Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
IndiVisible:
African-Native American Lives in the Americas was produced by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of
the American Indian (NMAI), the National Museum of African American History and
Culture (NMAAHC) and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
(SITES). The exhibition was made possible in part thanks to the generous
support of an anonymous donor and the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino
Center.
From the National Museum of
the American Indian:
IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the
Americas
A place of belonging. A true
sense of home.
All people share this desire.
For those of dual African American and Native American heritage, this powerful
sense of home has been difficult to find. Because they have not fit into
society’s established racial categories, they’ve been denied a true sense of
belonging.
Despite this challenge, the
life experiences of African-Native American peoples have become a vital part of
our American identity. Faced with centuries of government policies and laws
that systematically oppressed and excluded them, they came together to find
creative and effective ways to fight back. They established new, blended
communities that drew strength from sharing traditions and philosophies. And,
for more than 500 years, with their music, dance, craft, and food,
African-Native Americans developed deeply rich cultural expressions that made
an indelible mark on American life.
For centuries, African American
and Native people have shared cultural traditions and practices, united in
common struggle and forged relationships, families and unique ways of life
throughout the Americas. But at times, racist policy and prejudice divided
these communities and denied their shared heritage. Notable figures in U.S.
history with dual African American and Native American ancestry include Crispus
Attucks, Langston Hughes and Jimi Hendrix. By focusing on the dynamics of race,
community, culture and creativity, “IndiVisible” examines an important and
often overlooked aspect of American history.
Since its premiere on the
National Mall in 2009, the exhibition has traveled to museums and cultural
centers across the country, including the Chieftains Museum in Rome, Ga.; the
Standing Bear Museum in Ponca City, Okla.; New Mexico State University Museum
in Las Cruces, N.M.; the California African American Museum in Los Angeles; and
the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Ala.
The Smithsonian’s National
Museum of the American Indian opens a 20-panel banner exhibition, “IndiVisible:
African-Native American Lives in the Americas,” focusing on the seldom-viewed
history and complex lives of people of dual African American and Native
American ancestry. Through the themes of policy, community, creative resistance
and lifestyles, the exhibition includes stories of cultural integration and the
struggle to define and preserve identity.
The exhibition addresses the
racially motivated laws that have been forced upon Native, African American and
mixed-heritage peoples since the time of Christopher Columbus. Since
precolonial times, Native and African American peoples have built strong
communities through intermarriage, unified efforts to preserve their land and
by taking part in creative resistance. These communities developed constructive
survival strategies over time, and several have regained economic
sustainability through gaming in the 1980s. The daily cultural practices that
define the African-Native American experience through food, language, writing,
music, dance and the visual arts, will also be highlighted in the exhibition.
A 10-minute media piece is
featured with interviews obtained during research and work on the exhibition with
tribal communities across North America. Site work was conducted in Mashpee,
Mass. with the Mashpee Wampanoag community, in Los Angeles with the Creek and
Garifuna communities, with the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Okla., and at the
Tutelo Homecoming Festival in Ithaca, N.Y., which welcomed the Cayuga, Tutelo
and Saponi Indian Nations.
“The topic of African-Native
Americans is one that touches a great number of individuals through family
histories, tribal histories and personal identities,” said Kevin Gover
(Pawnee), director of the museum. “We find commonalities in our shared past of
genocide and in the alienation from our ancestral homelands, and it
acknowledges the strength and resilience we recognize in one another today.”
“The National Museum of African
American History and Culture is proud to have contributed to this important and
thoughtful exhibition,” said museum director Lonnie Bunch. “African American
oral tradition is full of stories about ‘Black Indians,’ with many black
families claiming Indian blood. However, there have been few scholarly
treatments of this subject which, in the end, expresses the basic human desire
of belonging.”
The exhibition was curated by
leading scholars, educators and community leaders, including Gabrielle Tayac
(Piscataway), Robert Keith Collins (African-Choctaw descent), Angela Gonzales
(Hopi), Judy Kertèsz, Penny Gamble-Williams (Chappaquiddick Wampanoag) and
Thunder Williams (Afro-Carib).
The accompanying exhibition
book, “IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas,” edited by
Gabrielle Tayac, features 27 essays from authors across the hemisphere sharing
firstperson accounts of struggle, adaptation and survival and examines such
diverse subjects as contemporary art, the Cherokee Freedmen issue and the
evolution of jazz and blues. The richly illustrated 256-page book is available
in Smithsonian museum stores and through the Bookshop section of the museum’s
Web site at www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/bookshop
The exhibition is produced in
collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture
and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES)
~~~~~~
Jim
PepperFest 2013 tickets are on sale now:
Volunteer:
Sponsor Jim
PepperFest 2013 and help us make history:
Contact: Sean Aaron Cruz
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JimPepperNativeArtsFestival
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Master drummer Ra-Kalam Bob Moses to hold master class
Among
the four members of the legendary, pioneering jazz-fusion band The Free Spirits coming to Portland in August
to celebrate their friend and bandmate Jim Pepper is world-renowned master
drummer and educator Rakalam Bob Moses.
“Drummer,
composer, artist, poet, dancer, visionary, nature mystic (Rakalam) Bob Moses's life has been a continuous
quest for vision, spirit, compassion, growth, and mastery in a multiplicity of
art forms.”—New England Conservatory
Bob
will arrive in Portland in time to conduct a master class in doing what he does
(time and place and other details TBA) before taking the stage Friday and Saturday
evenings August 9 & 10 for the historic reunion concert of The Free
Spirits. And then he’s off to tour Australia and New Zealand.
This
will give you a sense of what you don’t want to miss:
Photo
by Andrew Hurlbut
“I can see two major
traditions or trains of thought colliding and merging in my music.
“One is the path of the
nature visionary; one who can travel without moving, to and through various
dimensions and planes of reality. In my life I have seen through the veils,
kissed butterflies, envisioned animated three-dimensional scenes and stepped into
those scenes, talked to and played with spirits of other worlds, past, present
and future. I have been a flower, a mountain, a raging river, a stone….
“The other tradition or
stream that I swim in is the Great River of African Music in all its manifestations:
the importance of clave’, groove, swing, rhythm, dance, hip-shaking, rhythm and
rhyme sublime, shadows and light by day, by night, Jazz, Funk, Rhythm and
Blues, Hip Hop, Rap, Reggae, Calypso, Zouk, Soukous, Samba, Afro-Cuban, Salsa
are all psychically if not geographically emanating from Africa….
“So the streams merge and
become one vast, deep, infinite music:
“Music
with groove but no walls
Music with
soul but no boundaries
Music with
roots but no ceilings
Music of
hope and love and humor”
--Rakalam Bob Moses, from When Elephants Dream of Music
–on Bob Moses’ When Elephants Dream of
Music:
"Bob Moses has now
emerged as the possessor of one of the grander imaginations in America's true
classical music. No orchestral composer of this scope, mellow wit, and freshly
distinctive range of colors has come along since Gil Evans."-Nat Hentoff, Modern
Recording and Music
“Bob Moses, composer, drummer, poet, artist,
conceptualizer, inspirer of people, has created a musical environment that is
balanced between discipline and freedom, compositional design and spontaneous
inspiration. A party with a purpose. This album is original, soulful, funny…and
very special. I hope a lot of people get as much enjoyment from it as I have”.
–Gil Evans
–on On Time Stood Still
"Leave it to Moses, a multi-directional
shamanistic groovilator, to put all the pieces together. On Time Stood
Still, another sprawling production of DeMille-ian scale, he seamlessly
blends Monk, funk, tap, hip hop, bebop, big band, blues, Bahia, Tanzania, and
the avant garde into one organic package while paying homage to the spirits of
Gil Evans, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Jaco Pastorius."-Bill Milkowski, Down
Beat
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JimPepperNativeArtsFestival
Website:
www.jimpepperfest.net
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Native Arts & Cultures Foundation supports Jim PepperFest 2013
“You
must not forget me when I’m long gone, for I loved you so dearly….”
--Jim
Pepper, Remembrance
We
are very happy to announce that the Native
Arts & Cultures Foundation has become a sponsor of the Jim Pepper
Native Arts Festival.
The Native Arts &
Cultures Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 philanthropic organization dedicated
exclusively to the revitalization, appreciation and perpetuation of indigenous
arts and cultures. The Native-led national foundation supports American Indian,
Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native artists and communities.
This
advertisement will be printed in the Jim
PepperFest 2013 souvenir program:
About
the Foundation
The
Native Arts & Cultures Foundation (NACF) is a 501(c)3 philanthropic
organization dedicated exclusively to the revitalization, appreciation and
perpetuation of indigenous arts and cultures. The Native-led national
foundation supports American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native artists
and communities.
Created after decades of visioning by Native
peoples, the arts and cultures foundation provides support to the field and
fosters creativity amongst Native peoples through grantmaking, convening,
advocacy and research.
“The arts have always played a significant role in Native cultures, and
are a powerful path for connecting one generation to the next. Thanks to the
generous support of the Ford Foundation and others, we were able to launch this
important new organization. Thanks to ongoing donations, we're able to carry
out our mission to provide support to artists and organizations to help our
cultures flourish. We look forward to fostering opportunities that help create
positive social change in communities across the nation,” said Foundation
President/CEO T. Lulani Arquette.
Thank you for your interest in the Native
Arts and Cultures Foundation.
Native Arts and Cultures Foundation
11109 NE 14th Street, Vancouver, WA 98684
11109 NE 14th Street, Vancouver, WA 98684
Phone: 360-314-2421 Fax:
360-718-2553
Jim Pepper, Quebec City Powwow, circa 1980
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